A father prays he sees a clear image of himself when he peers into his son. Born with this son is a desire to correct the mistakes of his father, an opportunity to snuff out the generational curses of his father and father's father, and a chance to create in this new being the change he wanted but could not will within himself. Fathers want their sons to ascend past their life in scope and ambition. These dreams and desires burn within the soul of a man, but if a son does not come to his father to glean wisdom, this fire flames out; these dreams and desires go unsaid. When this fire finally reignites and these unspoken desires burst through, they come out in the form of a critical comment in anger, a searing glare, a long speech on disappointment: it's the curse he learned from his father and father's father. Anger and disappointment are the only emotions men are comfortable enough to communicate. How can a father truly tell his son what's on his heart without him becoming soft? It's a long road to carry that heavy load and men cannot afford to be careless. A father hopes his son will take these unsaid things from his life and his actions: providing for his mother and sisters. Working even when it hurts; or at least this is what he tells himself. Work and provision keeps a house warm but creates distance. The image a father once thought he could clearly see in his son becomes smeared.
In a meeting between father and son, Don Corleone laments his desire for Michael to be a man of great influence; he never wanted him involved in the family business. He admits his older sons, Sonny and Fredo, were more cut out for the family business: Sonny's bombastic temper and impulsive nature makes him a natural mobster. Fredo is dim-witted and frail but he's a soldier with a good heart. Don Corleone recognizes that Michael has inherited his brain and calculating nature; his strongest attributes. Michael wants to learn everything from his father. Once Michael becomes don, he appoints his father as his counselor. This is for good reason; despite Don Corleone's brutal rise to power, by all accounts he's a warm family man who's beloved and can gain never ending loyalty from the most mammoth of men. Michael's intellect made him ideal for the lonely and all consuming endeavor of empire building but he never inherited his father's heart. Michael is never seen having the same openness with his son that Don Corleone had with him, Fredo and Sonny. Michael makes the Corleone family more powerful and wealthy and yet, he loses his family. He even talks to his mother about this possibility but the tragedy is that he never corrects his course. Though Michael is the favored son and Don Corleone believes he's his doppelganger, Michael only managed to be a darkly image of his father.
The same way a father is viewed as a failure if he's not the ideal image of strength, swagger and provision; a son can find himself cursed with the burden of ascending past his father's life in scope and ambition. After all, a father prays he sees a clear image of himself when he peers into his son but the traditional view of masculinity is skewed and mired with every generation. A father cannot expect his son to mirror only his best qualities; he must be willing to shatter his own reflection and let his son see him as flesh and blood. This is the only way to fight off the shards of bad memories that will tear through the rest of his son's life. He must see his father's aches, his fragility, those imperfections that make him a man. Those are the things that leave the biggest impact on a son. As Don Corleone and Michael show, there's no guarantee father and son will be a clear copy of each other but a father can die well if he instructs his son on how to walk through the broken glass of life. Then it becomes the son's choice whether or not he becomes a darkly image.
